Missing since March, body of ASU professor found in Arizona landfill, two teens charged in his murder
Image credits: ASU and MCSO
Junseok Chae, an Associate Dean for Research in the Tempe campus School of Engineering at Arizona State University mysteriously vanished on his way home from ASU and was reported missing on March 25. A desperate search to find the professor came to an end yesterday when his remains were discovered dumped in a Surprise, Arizona, landfill.
Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in a statement said investigators believe Chae was killed in the suburban Phoenix area, not long after he was reported missing on March 25. Less than a week later, authorities in Shreveport, La., were contacted about a vehicle they later determined to belong to the professor, prompting investigators to speculate he’d been a victim of foul play. ~Yahoo! News
Turns out that there were two teenagers found driving around in Chae’s car. The couple was identified as Javian Ezell, 19, and Gabrielle Austin, 18. The two were arrested in Shreveport and have both been extradited to the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona. Ezell and Austin are both looking at charges of first-degree murder, vehicle theft, and armed robbery.
Police say the two allegedly killed Chae before leaving his body in a dumpster, which was then emptied out in the landfill. The motive and means of the alleged murder were not immediately clear, and police have not disclosed what relation, if any, the two teens had to the professor. ~ The Daily Beast
The suspected murderers are each being held on $1 million bonds. Their arraignments are tentatively scheduled for September 3, according to MSN.
For more on the disappearance and murder of Junseok Chae, see the video accompanying this article. Also, check out Dr. Chae’s academic bio at the end of this article.
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
Chae’s academic bio from the ASU website is provided below:
Junseok Chae received a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 1998, and master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2000 and 2003, respectively. He joined Arizona State University in 2005 as an assistant professor and now he is associate dean for research at Fulton Schools of Engineering of ASU, and a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.
He has published more than 150 journal and conference articles, nine book chapters, one book, and holds four U.S. patents. His areas of interests are wearable sensors and actuators, miniaturized biomedical wireless sensors and systems.
He received the 1st place prize and the best paper award in DAC (Design Automation Conference) student design contest in 2001. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award on MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) protein sensor array.
